We are an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the history, culture and true lives of Romani people worldwide.
We confront racism and oppression wherever we encounter it.
We try to make connections with all the "isms" that make up western culture.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

MORE ON FRANCE

French news server Le Progres.fr reports that French Police have evicted 10
Romani families from a municipally-owned building in Lyon which had been
unoccupied for years until the families' recent arrival. Most of them are from
Romania.

The eviction occurred after French authorities recently dissolved
several Romani campsites elsewhere in the country. The European Roma and
Travellers Forum (ERTF) has objected to Paris's procedures. The Council of
Europe considers the ERTF the main international organization for the protection
of the rights of Romani people in Europe.

Authorities justified yesterday's eviction of 50 adults and children onto the
street by claiming they plan to reconstruct the building. Romani representatives
say the reconstruction is not to start until 2014. Romani civic associations say
this is the seventh such intervention in Lyon, where more than 350 Romani
people, most of them from Romania, have been forced to relocate since the start
of the summer. The Romani evictees have demanded substitute accommodations, but
authorities are refusing to provide any.

Last week the French Police cleared a campsite of approximately 200 Romani
people near the northern town of Lille. The intervention followed a series of
similar police actions in Lyon and Paris.

Police officers have been targeting
Romani people from Eastern Europe who have no official documentation of their
residency in France. A group of Romanian Romani people was subsequently deported
from Lyon.

The new French socialist government is continuing the policies of the
preceding right-wing cabinet in this respect.

The Catholic Church, the European
Union and human rights defenders criticized the wave of Romani deportations from
France back to Romania that occurred under former French President Nicolas
Sarkozy in the summer of 2010. Current French Interior Minister Manuel Valls
launched the recent interventions by calling them legal and unavoidable because
the Romani camps posed a public health threat.
Approximately 20 000 Romani people live in France.

Many of the deported
Romanian Romani people received EUR 300 each in support funds from the French
authorities during their departure from the country, but returned to France
anyway. Valls said the government is re-evaluating the policy of such financial
support as well as restrictions on Romanian citizens working in France.

Human rights groups are criticizing the fact that no alternative temporary
accommodation has been prepared for the Romani people, such as those evicted
from a settlement near Lille, a group that included 60 children.

"What will
happen to these families? [The authorities] take everything they have away from
them - this is a violation of fundamental human rights," declared Father Arthur
Hervet, a Catholic priest.

A spokesperson for the European Commission says the Commission is carefully
following the manner in which the French authorities are now dissolving the
Romani campsites and wants to investigate whether arbitrary deportations and
discriminatory treatment are occurring. Two years ago, Justice Commissioner
Viviane Reding criticized Sarkozy for deporting Romani people, most of them from
Bulgaria and Romania, which are also EU Member States.

France eventually, under
the threat of being taken to court, adopted guarantees which Reding said would
"protect EU citizens from arbitrary deportation and discriminatory treatment."

On Monday the Council of Europe reported that the ERTF had sent a letter to
French President Hollande asking Paris to radically change its policy toward
Romani people, to stop disturbing Romani campsites without providing substitute
accommodation, and to ease Romani integration by opening France's labor market
to them.

"We regret that the policy of the socialist government regarding the
Romani issue is, for the time being, just a continuation of the policy of your
predecessor," the ERTF management's statement reads.

The ERTF is headquartered in Strasbourg. According to the Council of Europe,
the forum brings together large international non-governmental organizations and
more than 1 500 national associations of Romani people and Travellers from all
of the countries of Europe.

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FLAG OF THE ROMA

LOLO DIKLO : RrOMANI AGAINST RACISM

Lolo Diklo : Rromani Against Racism is an organization dedicated to providing information about the true situation of the Romani (Gypsies) in the world today. We are committed to confronting racism and oppression wherever it is found.

BACKGROUND

The Romani are a people who are not very well known. We are an ethnic group of people originally from India. We left India and arrived in Europe sometime in the 1300's. There are many theories as to why we left India. This is the work of academics, and we have some. Most Romani are more concerned about daily survival to worry about documentation of our past. We know who we are.

What is known about the Romani is, for the most part, stereotypically based. We are portrayed as romantic, carefree wonderers or child stealers, pick pockets and beggers.

Today the Romani of Europe face the same discrimination they have faced for centuries.